Page 53 of Her Elusive Cowboy Billionaire

“Then this place is it.We just have to be prepared, but what can we do?”

Chase stood and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows.“First thing, we should close all your blinds.”He reached for the right-hand side of the vertical blinds.

Suddenly, a bullet shattered the window to his left.Some of the glass blew into the room, hitting him in the face.The rest stayed in the windowpanes.

“Get down!”Chase launched himself at her, pushing her off the sofa to the floor and covering her body with his.“Are you all right?Are you hit anywhere?”

“No, I’m fine.”She pushed at him, her body shaking.

“Let’s get into the kitchen.That’s the only place that has cover.”He rolled off, gun in one hand.He low-crawled into the kitchen.

She followed Chase, doing exactly as he did until she stood behind the refrigerator and the stove.

Chase stood next to her.

“You’re bleeding.Looks like you got hit by the glass.”She took a dishcloth out of a drawer between the stove and the refrigerator.Then she wet it at the sink.She dabbed at his forehead next to his left eyebrow.“You’re lucky.A little more to the right and you’d have lost your eye.”When she’d cleaned the blood away, she took another dishcloth from the drawer and placed it over the wound.“Here, hold this while I get the first aid kit.”

He held the cloth to his head.

She pulled the large red plastic case from under the sink and opened it on the island.Then she pulled out some gauze pads and surgical tape.“Okay, give me the cloth.”

He handed it over.

“It looks like it’s stopped bleeding.”She placed a small gauze pad over the wound and taped it on.“ There almost good as new.”

“Thanks.”He looked at his gun and then the shattered window.“This pistol won’t do us any good against his high-powered rifle.”

“Do you have your phone?We can call the police.”

“No.It’s on the end table.”

“My purse is by the front door, if I can make it to the foyer?—“

“No, you’d be too exposed for too long.I’ll go.”

She snapped her fingers.“Wait, I have a landline in the spare bedroom.”

“Good.We can crawl there and not be in his sight.Ready?”

“Let’s go.”

She got to her hands and knees and crawled out of the kitchen to the guest bedroom, which was on the opposite side of the living room from the master.She noticed Chase crawled beside her, keeping his body toward the window.Another bullet zinged into the kitchen’s wall above them.

She stopped and screamed.“Dang.I don’t know if I can take much more of this.”

“You’re doing great.Just keep going.”

When she entered, she realized the blinds were open.These windows weren’t floor to ceiling, but were just normal windows.“I have to close those or he’ll see us.”

“You get the phone, I’ll get the blinds.”

She headed to the nightstand on her right.The blinds were on her left and across the room.She reached the nightstand.

Chase rose from a crouch and closed one blind.

Another bullet came through one of the windows.

She pulled the cordless phone down to the floor and dialed 911.